Kerry Warns Assad: More Help to Rebels If You Do Not Negotiate

Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad that if it chooses not to participate in upcoming international negotiations aimed at ending the country’s two-year conflict, then “the opposition will be receiving additional support.”

After a visit to Moscow, Kerry said he expects every party to the conflict to participate in an international conference to negotiate a peaceful transition in Syria, planned for early June. The conference will be endorsed by both the U.S. and Russia.

“If he decides not to come to the table it will be another one of President Assad’s gross miscalculations. Now, I don’t believe that that is the case at this moment,” Kerry said.

“If President Assad decides to miscalculate again about that,” Kerry added, “as he has miscalculated about his own country’s future over the course of the last years, it is clear the opposition will be receiving additional support, there will be additional efforts made and unfortunately the violence will not end.”

What Kerry didn’t mention is that the Syrian rebels, which have no organized leadership, have consistently and defiantly opposed any negotiations with the Assad regime. Still, his warning was issued to the Syrian government and not the rebels.

In any case, the threat is probably an empty one meant for rhetoric only. While the Obama administration has facilitated the delivery of weapons and other aid from countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, it has stopped short of directly arming the rebels, citing concerns about weapons getting in the hands of terrorists.

Author: John Glaser

Let's see….yesterday Russia confirms that it will continue to fulfill its "existing contracts" supplying Syria with Air Defense capabilities, and today John Kerry says the same thing that's already been said every day for over a year now by the Obama Administration.

Whoop-die Doo Glaser…

President al-Assad has been more than willing to discuss the terms of the "transitional government" he will lead in the run-up to the 2014 "elections"…at which point the "Syrian People" will then 'choose their own political 'leadership' via the 'ballot box"…. This is in line with the "Geneva communique" agreed upon and signed by the UN Security Council, which the Obama Administration now seems to want to change the "terms" of after the fact…

It is the Obama Administration, and the associated "alliance" it leads, that refuses to "come to the table" and "negotiate'…

Wake me up 'if' (and it's a big "if") and when the stooge so-called "opposition" 'Representatives' have been anointed and carted out…

SecState Lurch Kerry is planning on sending a fine new set of Chicago Cutlery to the FSA. Just so Bashar al-Assad "knows" the US is serious.

mojo

The USA foreign policy has become a joke.., not that it wasn't.., but now a days is more obvious then ever before.., the first question that come to mind is : who are these oppositions…, is the barbarians are included in this opposition.., or the opposition to these barbarians whom are opposing them but have the same mentality are also invited to participate…, is Al-Qaeda or Wahhabis, or Salafis, or any other extremism religious organization supported by Saudis and other tyrants as such also invited.., ???

Now let say that they are…, then whats next for Syria.., these feudalism regime openly will become the enemy of the Syrian people as they already are.., they will turn the country and the region to a bigger war and terrorists acts as they are doing.., is that a kind of democracy that USA or Kerry wants to establish for the people of middle east…, Or this is a stone age democracy created by the Obama administration as a last resort in a falsified democracy falsifying the fact and the principals of democracy.

Look: the date is 2013 and is not BC, democracy should have another meaning by functioning.., you are not creating democracy and that's not nor ever has been the USA intention.., by supporting terrorism, the tyrants, those who produce barbarians.., what USA is doing is creating another scenario moving the time backward into the rules of Stone Age regimes because USA government himself is afraid in having a functioning democracy, USA government is not about democracy but rather a functioning economic system within the vulture capitalism.., eating the heart of its own people.

saynotohope

Obama is the one that's miscalculated. The 'rebel' fight -and the war– would never be at this stage without the US fanning the fire. But even with the fanning, the US has marginal influence inside Syria. Assad isn't losing.

What's remarkable here is Kerry _threatens to continue to aid the opposition_ unless Assad comes to the table of Kerry-Obama artificial constructs.

The only bit here is playing games with words and rhetoric. OBAMA IS THE OPPOSITION
and states if you don't negotiate, then we will continue a proxy war. Does that make sense to only sane people?

There would be no war without the US allowing arms traffic to occur. The US is giving political legitimacy to men who mutilate corpses and eat human flesh, who planted bombs in front of a girl's school in Damascus, who gouged out the eyes of a Orthodox Bishop, who most likely blew up Turkish border town, who tax non Muslims or possibly kill them. They've looted Syria, people. The marketable goods cross into Turkey. This is nothing new, but this is not change we can believe in.

But the "opposition party" (cough, gag, vomit) to Obama in the US is mostly pissed that Assad's head isn't on a pole already. They don't care about illegal warfare. There is no opposition to call bs. Conservatives only want full on frontal war, and Obama and Kerry don't want to scuff their cufflinks and good image. And people cry the media is left leaning but that's not true. US media bends to power, propagating the message like a PR machine.

Loose Savage

These supposed negotiations are a sham; Kerry has already decreed that Assad must resign. Even if this were not true, should Assad be expected to negotiate with an enemy whose leaders eat human organs?

john g

The article completely fails to mention the US demand that talks about a "peaceful transition" of power from the Assad government is an explicit demand for surrender.

persnipoles

Lol! Great choice of Kerry weaselspeak… if you don't, it'll be just one mo of yo grave errors…I don't think you wanna error like that… oh, you didn't just decide to err some more like you do so often… Pure locker room trash talk.

I take it Kerry thinks there are people listening to him rather than e.g. looking at what's being done. If you druel and pick your nose, he shur sounds like that Ass-ad has a record for misapprehending the situation. That's how come he sez so twice.

nomange

So, Secretary Kerry, who is it who has been unwilling to negotiate?

You’ve become the latest gasbag mouthpiece for the Bush-Obama Middle East policy- add to you National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Hillary Clinton (she, who never met a war she didn't love, gone for now, thank goodness), Susan Rice, Jeffrey Feltman, Robert Ford (he who help coordinate our COIN terrorist operations in Syria, and who was tutored by and previously worked for John Negroponte of COIN fame in Iraq- Negroponte you may recall was the architect of our dirty war in Central America), Samantha Power (who actions support genocide, notwithstanding her writings to the contrary) and former DOD Secretary Panetta ("little Leon" now tending his walnut farm, who made a speech on his birthday to the USIP advocating a new form of foreign policy gang rape and wilding with our NATO allies- who but the Administration knew at the time he also meant fundamentalist jihadists?). The Administration’s 'responsibility to protect' 'smart power' 'humanitarian interventionism' has a just been its disingenuous way of trying to legitimize aggressive war and regime overthrow.

The irony is that Assad introduced a constitutional reform process in 2011 to create a multiparty pluralistic state with Presidential term limits and new elections, and the government and its reform process was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Syrian people at the polls a year ago, even while the U.S. was fighting, funding and coordinating a clandestine war in Syria- and you, Sec’y Kerry, damn well know it. In fact, in 2009 you were in a love-fest with Assad.

The U.S. should have left the Syrians to complete their reform process and hold their Presidential elections in 2014 as originally scheduled, and if it was worried about election transparency, it could have waited and called for international monitors and a ballot system that could be audited (unlike our computerized systems without any paper trail).

Sec’y Kerry, that you have let himself be so compromised is yet more indication of your lack of moral fortitude and your President’s perverse foreign policy.

CanuckBC

So, I see what Obomba wants now and why "freedom fighters" aka international jihad will not come to negotiation table. They are already promised hot guns and cool cash not to negotiate. I just hope Russians and Chinese see this little trick. As far as I remember Syrian government has been showing its willingness to solve country's problems by talks rather then eating rebels' hearts for long time. It has now gained some momentum in their fight with terrorists so it would be good time to negotiate. However, as talks with Iran has so far shown it is US and their allies who screw whole negotiations by bad faith (rather bullying). Let us hope they will be checked by Russia and China in their stunts.

Winston Smith

It is clear Kerry lives in his delusions and Acts Out his delusions.

As such he is highly dangerous, much more so than Clinton who didn't really believe it.

he also needs to see a therapist.

Negotiations need to take place between Syria the Obama-Kerry regime and Britain and France and the Syrian government concerning their Covert Operation against the country.

You deal with the Organ Grinder and not the organ grinder's monkey. You negotiate with the puppet master and not the glove puppets or the ventrioloquist's dummy.

There's Kerry sitting there with a glove puppet on each hand or the dummy on his knee and claims to be "mediating" peace between them and the Syrians.

It's like something out of Monty Python and British satirical TV. – the script writers would have field day.

rybo1

If I were Assad, I'd give Lurch (AKA Kerry) the finger and I hope he does.

mojo

If USA governments and that Swedish Neo fascism interested in peace then they should consider the national interests of the Syrian people and world peace.

Look: USA-EU and Saudis pays for training and salaries of these barbarians which tells me that USA and EU interests is not about the Syrian people social and political interests but rather the barbarians interests is first then the Syrian people's interests is considered. For USA and EU defending such politics is not about democracy nor in any way, now or in future will create democracy.., by the end of the day the USA and EU politics is a act in desperation wanting to change a regime.., giving up to the demands of these terrorist that are used for such purpose.., stop arming these terrorism.., stop supporting these barbarians., stop support tyrants and dictatorial regimes is the answer solving the problem.., otherwise the democracy itself will be prosecuted by these barbarians.., and I think.., as these kind of western politics policies continued.., that's the idea behind USA and EU foreign policies.

musings

See? Even John Kerry doesn't believe the Boston Marathon bombing was done by Chechens.

jo6pac

Kerry worth $$$$$ on his own then there wifey worth $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and then asked for a recount on the late Hugo election. Wow as a Memember of the left', not surprised that he didn't ask for the when he ran a way from being pothus